Australian Trials: Shades Of Thorpe And Hackett As Dolphins New Breed Sam Short And Elijah Winnington Give Aussies A 1-2 Punch For Fukuoka Return
At the height of their powers Ian Thorpe and Grant Hackett provided Australia with one of world swimming’s most lethal freestyle combinations and now some 20 years on the Dolphins will return to Fukuoka next month with another exciting one-two freestyle punch.
Memories of so many Thorpe and Hackett battles as they re-wrote the record books were on show in Melbourne last night when Queensland pair Sam Short and Elijah Winnington put on a 400m freestyle showdown for the ages.
TOUCH AND GO: Sam Short (black cap) and Elijah Winnington on the wall at MSAC last night. Photo Courtesy: Delly Carr (Swimming Australia).
The pair went stroke-for-stroke, staging a thrilling finish, with just 0.10 of a second between them – emulating the feats their heroes.
So many times, between 1998 and 2004 Thorpe and Hackett would lock horns and so many times it was over that 400m distance – so many races that would come down to those crucial final touches – and so many races in world record time.
And last night with young guns Short and Winnington in full cry for eight laps, was certainly reminiscent of a special golden era for the Dolphins.
Winnington (25.52 and 53.32) took the race out from the get-go leading Short (25.74 and 53.66) through the first 100m before Short (1:21.70 and 1:50.11) made his move over Winnington (1:21.74 and 1:50.44) towards the half-way mark.
It would come down to final two laps and the final touch and with 100m to go it was Short (2:47.18) hanging on as Winnington (2:47.72) mounted his final charge.
In the end it was 19-year-old world number one Short (Rackley Swim Team, QLD) who held on gallantly to out-touch the fast finishing 23-year-old world champion Winnington (St Peters Western, QLD) – 3:43.38 (1:50.11) to 3:43.48 (1:50.44) with 27-year-old Rio Olympic champion Mack Horton (Griffith University, QLD) a dogged third in 3:46.71 (1:52.04).
Short’s final 100 of 56.20 just fast enough to edge out Winnington’s power packed 55.76.
ATHENS 1-2 PUNCH: Ian Thorpe and Grant Hackett spent after putting on a 400m freestyle for the ages at the 2004 Olympics. Photo Courtesy: Delly Carr (Swimming Australia)
It sets up what will continue to be a busy week of racing over the up-coming five days from today’s 200m which saw Short withdraw from the heats and fastest qualifier Kyle Chalmers withdraw from the final (SEE BELOW).
Short said he had seen Winnington come back in a ridiculous time win the World Championship last year in Budapest, so he pushed it with 150m to go.
“I put the hammer down and I paid for it in the end but happy to still get the job done,” said Short, who had never qualified for the Australian team on the first night of Trials before.
“The pressure’s off and I’m keen for the rest of the week to keep racing this guy.”
Winnington said the 400m was just about doing the job.
“Sam and I have just swum really fast times to qualify for the world’s team but now it’s about replicating it again on the world’s stage and so hopefully we’ll both be up there on the podium for Australia,” said Winnington.
“It will be a world class field in Fukuoka and Sam still holds the number one time in the world this year so all kudos to him and he was a great swimmer out there tonight and hopefully we can do it again in six weeks time.”
The world rankings still features Short as number one with his 3:42.46 from the Australian Championships, followed by Germany’s Lukas Martens (3:43.32) with defending world champion Winnington now third on his 3:43.48 from last night.
In 2001 at the World’s in Fukuoka the lethal Thorpe-Hackett combo went 1-2 for Australia in the 400 and 800m freestyle – as they both went under the old world records.
Thorpe would beat Olympic champion Pieter van den Hoogenband in the world record breaking 200m, and Hackett would produce arguably his greatest ever swim to take the second of his four 1500m world crowns – in another slashing world record time of 14:34.56 – that would last 10 years.
Fukuoka was the second of the remarkable 400m gold-silver three-peat from two swimmers who held world swimming in the palms of their hands – the 1-2 that started in Perth in 1998 when Thorpe was just 15; continued in Fukuoka when the Dolphins were the kings and queens of the pool and again in Barcelona in 2003.
With Thorpe missing Montreal in 2005 it was left to Hackett – the team captain – to take over the reins and he didn’t let the team down without his great racing companion – winning the 400, 800 and his fourth straight 1500m – the 800m in a new world record time that would last until 2009.
Kyle Chalmers Leads The 200m Preliminaries in 1:46.97 Then Withdraws From The Final
Kyle Chalmers has withdrawn from tonight’s 200m freestyle final, after clocking the fastest qualifying time of 1:46.97 in the heats that saw Sam Short withdraw before they started, his coach Damien Jones saying: “Sam’s fine…we just wanted to focus on the rest of the meet.”
Then satisfying selectors with his heat swim, Chalmers then withdrew from the final, giving ninth-placed Queensland young gun, Kai Taylor (St Peters Western, QLD) a reprieve in lane eight in the final.
Chalmers signalled his intentions coming into the meet for a relay berth in Fukuoka and Paris, entering the fray for the first time this morning to , win heat two in 1:46.97, which saw Taylor precariously positioned in fourth place in 1:48.37 – 0.11 behind eighth placed Commonwealth Games and World Short Course gold medallist Flynn Southam (Bond, QLD) in 1:48.26.
Then followed heat three winner Winnington backing up from last night’s 400m in 1:47.26, ahead of Hunter NSW’s Alabama University-based Charlie Hawke (1:47.41) with Tokyo Olympic bronze medallists Tommy Neill (Rackley Swim Team) 1:47.69, Alex Graham (Miami, QLD) 1:47.93 and Brendon Smith (Griffith University, QLD) 1:48.12, former Tasmanian Age Group star Max Giuliani (Miami, QLD) 1:48.17, Southam and Taylor.
In other preliminary action: last night’s 200IM winner, Olympic champion Kaylee McKeown (Griffith University, QLD) is the fastest qualifier into the women’s 100m backstroke in 59.59; Olympian Abbey Harkin (St Peters Western, QLD) the fastest in the women’s 100m breaststroke in 1:08.22 while triple Olympian Cameron McEvoy (Somerville House, QLD) is the quickest into the 50m butterfly final in 23.08 – his personal best at 29 years of age – becoming the third fastest all-time Australian behind Matt Targett 22.73 and current Australian champion Ben Armbruster (Bond, QLD) 23.05 – a withdrawal from this meet with a rib injury.